Thomas Gsella

Thomas Gsella (c) Thomas Hintner

Thomas Gsella, born in 1958 in Essen, lives and works as a writer in Aschaffenburg. He is the most productive comic poet of the younger generation and in winning the Ringelnatz Prize for young writers was elevated to the nobility by Robert Gernhardt. He has won the Frankfurt Robert Gernhardt Prize and is the former editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine Titanic, for which he still continues to write – as well as for stern, Spiegel-Online, taz, the WDR and many more. He tours with Martin Sonneborn and Oliver Maria Schmitt as the ‘Titanic Boy Group’ but also with the Biermösl Blosn or solo. In Aschaffenburg he runs the reading series ‘Gsella lässt lesen’ which has hosted the likes of Wiglaf Droste, Fritz Eckenga, Konstantin Wecker and Hans Zippert. In person a thoroughly amenable and friendly person, Gsella likes to insult whole professional groups (Der kleine Berufsberater, Frankfurt a.M.: Eichborn 2007) or even cities (Reiner Schönheit Glanz und Licht – Ihre Stadt! im Schmähgedicht, Frankfurt a. M.: Eichborn 2011) in his poems.

Book recommendations: Nennt mich Gott. Schönste Gedichte aus 50 Jahren, Frankfurt a. M.: Fischer 2008; Viecher in Versen. Gedichte zu Tierzeichnungen von Greser & Lenz, München: C. Bertelsmann 2012; Achtung, Achtung, hier spricht der Weihnachtsmann! München: carl’s books 2014